Took the train out to Pocatella, Idaho, then drove back to Indiana from Yellowstone National Park.
That accounts for *some* of the red in the middle...


visited 26 states (52%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president 

I've also been to several places in Ontario, Canada (though not yet Toronto); spent about five minutes in Tijuana/Baja California, Mexico; been to London, Cambridge, and Oxford in the UK; and Paris, Orleans, and Blois in France.

I have seen a lot of bad book trailers in the past few months -- many of them slow-paced affairs pieced together with stock photos and twinkly music while text prints itself laboriously across the screen. You can see the effort that's gone into making the trailer pretty, or funny, or exciting, but it misfires as often as not, and I start yawning and stop watching around the 45-second mark.

This one, however, is quite a serviceable little commercial -- albeit for a series I already know and love, so perhaps I'm more inclined to be generous with it. But no, I think it's pretty well managed and paced overall, and I'm glad to see it out there:



What about you? Have you seen any really good book trailers lately you'd like to recommend?

I Can Has LOLcode: Check out the slideshow that accompanies this article - they asked (and received) permission to use four of my LOLcats. Thanks to Nikki, Mel and Jodi for the use of their cat photos, and thanks to Suzy, Padme and Kippy for deigning to be photographed.

I've added some new titles (including ones by Rachel Caine and Jocelynn Drake) to my Reading Wishlist.

Now, to await the cat's homecoming for photography, and resisting the urge to buy crisps...

I officially declare this an open questions thread. Ask me anything. I make no promises about the answers, of course. (Response times may be delayed due to travel and other events.)

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Well, I’m off again at the crack of doom. Heading back to Seattle for tomorrow’s signing with Brenda Cooper at University Books. (Dinner to precede, meet at 5 pm on the corner by the book store, or call me.) I’ll work from the home of the lovely and talented on Friday, then make my way toward the Clarion West party that night before returning home to Nuevo Rancho Lake on Saturday.

Got editorial feedback on “In the Forests of the Night”. Somewhat to my amazement, the feedback was positive and quite minimal. I’ll be a lot tougher on myself in the rewrite, frankly. All good. Meanwhile, Green continues apace. This is a pretty good book, truth be told.

I’m tired as heck, and the antibiotics make my mouth taste like pennies, but otherwise I feel rather myself tonight. As usual, expect continued light blogging through Sunday.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

This was a video worth sharing.

Yesterday, I saw a headline that went something like this: "Protester attempts to Superglue self to British prime minister."  Oh, that headline just about made my day.  It's like a beautiful piece of flash fiction in itself, but at the same time it's like a writing prompt, a gateway to potentially bigger stories.  I told myself: If you can't make a story out of that, you're not trying.

I'm not going to write from that prompt, since another story has me in its grip right now.  And there's the danger of the real, factual story interfering with my fictional flights of fancy.  But it has been fun to think about.  Maybe someday.

Boredom tonight led to some Dr. Horrible-related doodles. I thought they were kind of cute, and figured I'd share them with y'all. :)

( Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible )

I may draw Penny later... I just ran out of motivation for now. I also really want to draw Bad Horse and Fake Thomas Jefferson because I might be insane. :)

 and I scaffolded the wormholes with exotic matter, otherwise, they might fall apart. The Weylforges did their job....

Now that I have the wormhole nexuses established, stations built, planets colonized, I can start the novel revision.

If anyone catches me here more than once a day, please feel free to send me back to the revision board. I plan to work on the novel revision for at least three hours a day.

This is official.

Sophy

I have a reservation at the Grand Hyatt Denver hotel (#6 on the con map I believe) for dates:

Check-in: Tue 05-Aug-2008
Check-out: Mon 11-Aug-2008
2-Double beds, non-smoking room
$159/nite

I found accomodations in the party hotel and need to transfer this one to a WorldCon person who can use it, or release it into the hotel any-convention oblivion pool. Note that I believe you can reduce but not extend the date range covered if you aren't staying that long.

If interested, please contact me at jeff AT taupro DOT com

But before I begin:

1. No Blade of the Immortal episode yet? I totally got spoiled last week. Don't do stuff like that. It sets unrealistic expectations.

2. Guys, next time I decide to dip my toes into the Avatar fandom, please stop me. Seriously. Just remind me to keep it to the flist. Everyone will be happier this way. God, I don't even know where to begin. So I won't, and instead I'll refer you to mekosuchinae's handy diagram.

Okay, onto the stuff that gets stuck under the cut.

( Read more... )

A friend of mine posted this on her lj, which made me go, "Gee, that's quite in line with Dr. Horrible! And my! One could find quite a number of items on Pegasus that would go quite nicely as well." Which lead to me drooling... ah... uh... um... I mean, I went over and perused their shirts and patches and such again and noticed that they have both the Mad Scientist Lab Coat and shirts as well as the League of Evil Geniuses and the Brotherhood of Lackeys, Minions & Thralls. I have my eye on a number of things for birthday/christmas lists... like this one.

It's the doldrums of summer; therefore I must move stuff in the office.

Actually, I promised DS some money-making projects and so I am taking the advantage of having strong young male muscles around to schlep books, bookshelves and suchlike without it taking the forever it would take me by myself. For one thing, I need more bookshelf space; for another, the rubber tree needs a new home instead of the shelf it is living on since it is threatening to grow through the skylight (that'll give it another two feet of room before I decide I have to prune it); for still another thing, I want to be able to have a more open space where I can actually find books instead of having to move the papa-san to get to them.

I probably should just replace the papa-san with a smaller chair, but I've had it for twenty-one years. Besides, what would I replace it with and how soon would it take me to get the papa-san moved out of the garage and somewhere else? I could always take it to school...no, some kid would get hurt on it. It is not a very sturdy papa-san.

Still, with a smaller chair, I could start building bookcases against that back wall...we shall see. Another rocking chair would be nice to have in that area. DH would probably wonder why I want two rocking chairs, but I think it would be nice to have five chairs back here (two office chairs, two rocking chairs, and a director's chair--maybe even another director's chair instead of the second rocking chair). Then there would be less moving to do tomorrow and more book organizing. That wouldn't be that bad, either.

The goal is to open up some space so that I can have people back in here socially (like maybe some small writer gatherings--anyone interested?) as well as creating more room for books while still accommodating Stinky Elderly Rabbit (and actually, he's not that bad, except for the habit of dropping pebbles throughout his cage area and then dumping his food amongst the pebbles. He likes to let the food marinate, I guess). Once Stinky Elderly Rabbit is gone, there'll be more space here. But he's earned the right to a pleasant and sunny place to spend his last days, and that could be any time from tomorrow to the next five years.

Must think further on this. The goal is to have a pleasant and organized working area.

Lynn Prentiss is putting together an antho about Sex and Shoes. Read more here if you think you might want to submit.

Small forward progress made today, and then much discussion about house remodeling, both inside and out. I am sick to death of my kitchen. It is ugly. U. G. L. Y. Scrambled egg linoleum and counter tops, gray/white paint, cabinets that I think are pressed board, a hideous dropped ceiling, and weird fiberboard under the paint. And as if that wasn't bad enough, it's hard to cook in there because of limited counterspace and claustrophobic configuration. We wanted to do something more grand, but I think we are going to do a remodel without restructuring the actual walls (I wanted a pass through into my dining room and to push out a window into a breakfast nook area).  So man and I have begun discussions and I think we are going to try to get it done before winter sets in (which is actually very soon). If we do what we want, there will be far more storage and counter space, it will be aesthetically pleasing, and easier to cook in overall--we'll probably move appliances to make things work better, and I'll probably get a much deeper sink (this one is really really shallow). Hopefully we can do some and cut the costs.

So all of you guys go tell all your friends to buy my books so I can afford this.  :)

40 icons (including my poor attempt at a couple of animated icons, a few texty quote icons and a couple from the comic)





Rest are here @ likefluffy

Does anyone have good info on old Norse Mythology, especially art and depictions?

Preferably proper depictions, the stuff I'm finding all looks like Boris Vallejo work from the 70's & 80's.

I was driving home from work when I started thinking about my uncle Frank. I'm going to call my mom and see if she's heard anything.